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Archive for the ‘Tutoriale Windows 7’ Category

Easily Enable or Disable the Registry Editor Using RegistryED:

We’ve managed to create another tool which can be useful in certain scenarios. RegistryED can help you enable or disable your Registry Editor in Windows 7 as well as Windows Vista & Windows XP. This can come in handy when you don’t want others to edit your registry or, when a virus infects your computer and disables your Registry Editor. The scenarios are not that common but when you need this kind of tool, it’s certainly useful. Therefore, in this article you will find out how this tool works and also receive the download link.

First, download RegistryED using the download link at the bottom of this article. When you run it, don’t forget to right click on the file and select ‘Run as administrator’. When launched, the tool looks like in the screenshot below. To enable the Registry Editor, click on Enable. If you want to disable it, click on Disable.

We provide this tool as-is, with no warranties. If you encounter other issues with it, let us know via the comments below. We will do our best to fix them.

How to Open the Taskbar Properties Window

Most of the configuration options are located in the taskbar properties window. To open it, right click on a blank space of the taskbar and select Properties.

The configuration options are found in the first tab, called Taskbar.

In the chapters below I will discuss all these options in detail.

How to Change the Appearance & Location of the Taskbar

The first set of options from the Taskbar tab are helping you to customize the way the taskbar looks and how it is positioned. You can make the following configurations:

Lock and unlock the taskbar – if checked, this option will make the taskbar stay fixed in its place. It won’t allow you to move it or change its size. To unlock it, uncheck this option. An alternative is to right click on a blank space in the taskbar and uncheck the ‘Lock the taskbar’ option.

Auto-hide the taskbar – this option lets you hide the taskbar when you are not using it. When checked, the taskbar will only show up when you take your cursor to the taskbar zone, where the taskbar should be when it’s unhidden.

Use small icons – when checked, will make the taskbar icons look smaller which helps you save some space.

Taskbar location on screen – with this option you can move the taskbar to different positions on your desktop. Click on the drop-down menu and select the position you desire.

Another way to move the taskbar is to simply click on it, hold and drag it where you want. Just make sure that ‘Lock the taskbar’ is unchecked. Once the option is unchecked, click the left mouse button somewhere on the taskbar, keep it pressed and drag the taskbar to the desired position.

Taskbar buttons – this helps you select how to see the buttons of applications opened on the taskbar. Here you have three options:

Never combine – will keep all labels on the taskbar and will never combine the same applications (or better said will never stack them). If, for example, you have 10 Internet Explorer windows open, they will be shown separately. If the taskbar is full, the arrow next to the notification section will point to the next list of the applications opened. Also, when the taskbar is full, the name labels will not be present.

Combine when full – combines the same application into a stack only if the application has too many instances of it opened. This option also shows the label names of the application currently opened or pinned on the taskbar.

Always combine – will always combine opened instances of an application and will hide label names. This is also the default setting for the taskbar.

Resizing the taskbar is not included in the configuration options. However, this doesn’t mean you cannot change its size. To resize it, position the cursor on the upper margin of the taskbar until you see the cursor having two arrows (up and down), click and drag the margin up or down, as you desire.

NOTE: Resizing the taskbar works only if it’s unlocked.

Preview the Desktop with Aero Peek

When this option is enabled, you can move the cursor over the ‘Show Desktop button and a preview of the desktop will be shown by making all open windows translucent. This is useful when you want to see a desktop gadget or some other info shown on your desktop without reverting to your desktop for more than a second. Once you move the cursor out of the ‘Show Desktop button, your open windows will be shown again as they were before.

If this feature is not useful to you, uncheck the ‘Use Aero Peek to preview the desktop’ box from the Taskbar tab and it will be disabled.

If you click the ‘Show Desktop button, all open windows will be minimized and the desktop will be shown. If you click on it again, all windows will be shown as in their initial state.

How to Add Toolbars to the Taskbar

One feature that is not exactly new is the possibility to add toolbars to the taskbar. To add one, be it a standard toolbar offered by default or a custom one, right click on the blank space of the taskbar. In the right click menu, go to Toolbars and select the option you desire:

Address – this will add a web address toolbar in which you can type the address of any web-site. When you enter a web-address, it will open it in your default browser. It can also be used to access your computer folders or files. Personally I don’t find this to be very useful. You can get the same results just by typing a web-address in the Start Menu search field. This makes the Address toolbar pretty redundant.

Links – this adds a toolbar with all your favorite websites from Internet Explorer. If you use another browser as your default, it’s pretty useless.

Tablet PC Input Panel – this creates a button which you can use to quickly launch the Tablet PC Input Panel. This can be useful for Tablet PCs but it’s the same as pinning the Tablet PC Input Panel to your taskbar. Which is again redundant.

Desktop – this will add a toolbar with all the shortcuts and items from your desktop.

New toolbar – this is the most useful option as it allows you to add a custom toolbar to your taskbar. When you select this option, a new window will appear. Browse to the folder you wish to use as a toolbar and, once you have found it, click on the ‘Select folder’ button.

When you will click on the newly created folder toolbar, you will see the whole contents of the folder. This means that, if the folder has lots of content, the toolbar will occupy a big portion of your screen and it can take up longer time to load.

How to Disable Toolbars from the Taskbar

To disable a toolbar you can right click on the taskbar, go to Toolbars and click on the toolbar you wish to disable. Those that are enabled on the taskbar have a check sign next to them. Uncheck it and they will disappear.

If you want to disable more than one toolbar, an easier way is to go to the taskbar properties (as shown in the first chapter), click on the Toolbar tab and select only the toolbars you want to use.

Conclusion

As you can see, customizing the taskbar is very easy and can be done in seconds. In this article I covered all customization aspects except the Notification area, which will be included in a separate article. If you have some interesting tips about how to further customize your taskbar in Windows 7, don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

One of the areas where Windows 7 noticeably improves things versus Windows XP & Windows Vista is visual customization. With this article, we will start a small series about this area and, first, we will show what’s new in terms of changing your desktop background. In this tutorial I will show how to personalize your desktop background, set one or multiple pictures as wallpapers, how you set Windows 7 to automatically change them at desired intervals and in the order you want. I’ll also show what options you have in terms of positioning your wallpapers on the screen and share a good source of free wallpapers.

In order to customize your desktop background, you have to follow a couple of steps:

Step 1. The first thing you need to do is to have a folder with all the pictures that you want to use as wallpapers. That’s because you will not be able to select multiple folders, you can use wallpapers only from a given folder. You can either use your own photos or, you can download some good looking ones.

Step 2. Right-click on your desktop and choose Personalize.

Step 3. From the Personalization Control Panel, click on Desktop Background, located in the lower side of the window.

Step 4. The window that has just opened contains all the default folders where Windows 7 is looking for wallpapers. To select the folder that you have created with your own wallpapers, press the Browse button, locate the folder and select it.

Step 5. At this moment you are able to see all the pictures from the folder you have chosen. You can deselect the pictures you don’t want to have as background by clicking on the tick mark in the left corner of each image. Also, you can select all, or clear all pictures by clicking on the buttons with the same names.

Step 6. Now it is time to choose the position of the background images. For positioning, you have different options:

Fill – this option will enlarge or reduce the image so all your desktop is filled. If the image is small, it will be stretched and, if it is too large, it will be cropped.

Fit – with this option enabled, your photo will appear as large as possible, without distortion or clipping.

Stretch – will stretch your picture to the same dimension as your screen. If the picture is too large, it will be crammed or, if it is too small, it will be expanded.

Tile – this will make your image repeat so it can fill the screen. If the image is bigger than the screen, you will only be able to see the top left part, the rest being cropped.

Center – will position your picture in the center of the screen. If the picture is larger, you can only see the middle, the rest of it being clipped.

Step 7. The Fit and Center options might not cover the whole screen with your picture. Therefore, Windows 7 will show an additional link, allowing you to choose a background color. Simply click on ‘Change background color’ under the ‘Picture position’ menu and choose the color you desire. This will fill the empty space left on your screen with the selected background color.

Step 8. One of the new features of Windows 7 is the fact that it can automatically change your desktop background at a desired interval. You can select the time at which the pictures will change by clicking on the drop-down menu under the line which says ‘Change picture every:’.

Step 9. You can also enable the Shuffle option. When enabled, this will make Windows 7 randomly choose the order in which the images are set as desktop backgrounds. If you don’t select this option, the images will be displayed by name order.

NOTE: If you are running Windows 7 on a notebook, changing desktop backgrounds very often can slightly reduce the power of your battery. This is why it is best to check the option which says ‘When using battery power, pause the slide’. This will stop Windows 7 from changing the desktop background at the set interval. Once you will plug-in your notebook, the changing will resume.

Step 10. When you finished, don’t forget to click on the Save changes button.

Conclusion

Personalizing your desktop is, as you can see, only a few clicks away with Windows 7. It is very easy to set your favorite pictures as desktop backgrounds. If you know some great sources of desktop backgrounds or have some interesting tips to share, don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

After we wrote about how to pin any folder to the taskbar, I decided to search the Internet for a way to make custom Jump Lists. Fortunately I managed to find an application that can do this, called Jumplist-Launcher. This is a free tool, created by Ali Dunnpfiff, which can be pinned down on your taskbar and allows you to create a custom Jump List for it. In this tutorial I will show you how to install JumpList Launcher, how to add an item, folder or group and how to modify your custom jump list.

How to Pin a Folder to the Taskbar :

In order to pin a folder to the taskbar, you first need to create a shortcut on your desktop towards it. To do this, right-click on the empty space on your desktop and select New and then Shortcut.
In the ‘Create Shortcut’ window, click on Browse to find the folder that you want to add to the taskbar. Navigate to that folder, select it and click on OK.

NOTE: You can add even folders that are shared in your local network.
The path to the folder is now shown in the location field. Before you press next, you need to add one more thing. In front of the folder path, write the following word: explorer. Also, make sure that there is a space between this code and the path of the folder. When done, click on Next.
Insert a name for the folder shortcut and click on Finish.
Now you have the folder shortcut on your desktop. To have it on your taskbar, make a simple drag and drop. Alternatively, you can right-click on it and select ‘Pin to taskbar’.
After pinning the folders you want to have on the taskbar, you can go ahead and delete their shortcuts from your Desktop. The taskbar shortcuts will continue to work.
How to Pin a Start Menu Folder to the Taskbar

Sometimes you might need to add a folder from the Start Menu to the taskbar. For example, it can be useful to have the Microsoft Office Start Menu folder on your taskbar instead of all Microsoft Office shortcuts. You click on the folder shortcut, open it and then start the Microsoft Office tool you need to use.

To do this, you have to copy the path of the folder that you want to pin to the taskbar. The easiest way is to hold down the SHIFT key, right-click on the folder that you want to pin to the taskbar and select ‘Copy as path’.
Now you need to create a shortcut on your desktop, using the procedure described above. The difference is that, instead of browsing to the folder, you just Paste the path directly. Don’t forget that you can Paste using the Ctrl+V key combination.
Also, don’t forget about having the word explorer before the Start Menu folder path.
How to Change the Icon of the Taskbar Folder

In order to change the default icon, right-click on the newly created shortcut and select Properties.
Go to the Shortcut tab and click on ‘Change icon’ button from the Properties window.
Click on Browse to select a different icon then those that already appear in the Change icon window.
After you found the icon that you prefer, select it, click on Open, then on OK and again on OK.

The HomeGroup Feature & How it Works :
HomeGroup is a new feature introduced by Windows 7 which aims to simplify the process of sharing content and devices on your home network. In older versions of Windows, sharing content was a tedious and sometimes painful process, especially for home users. By using HomeGroups, you can now access all shared content in your home network with just one click. I know it sounds to good to be true. That’s why, in this article, I will show what a HomeGroup is, how it works, how to create one and join your home computers to it. Also, I’ll show how to change the password of your HomeGroup and how to retrieve it in case you forgot it.